125 Years: Transforming Campus, Empowering Lives

In the fall of 1963, Joan Stanley left her tiny Lackawanna County hometown of Dalton, Pa. (population 1,227) for East Stroudsburg State College, and over the next four years, she would find and form her future. As an education student, she learned from faculty mentors such as Physical Education professors Robert Sutton and Mary Sue Balducci. She participated in the gymnastics exhibition team, was a cheerleader when the football team won championships in 1964 and 1965 and became a charter member of the first sorority, Sigma Tau. Before graduating in 1967, Stanley was offered a teaching position with Pleasant Valley School District.

“East Stroudsburg was a major awakening for me,” says Joan (Stanley) Merring ’67 M’92 who was the first in her family to go to college. “I thought it was the greatest thing going.”

Stories like hers have been repeated thousands of times over the course of East Stroudsburg University’s 125-year history. Today, ESU has 55 undergraduate programs, 22 master’s programs and a doctoral program all serving more than 6,800 students from 29 states and 25 countries. It has come a long way from the small private school that was created for one specific mission.